UPDATED July 14, 2024
“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” — Walt Disney
Partners Statue in Disneyland
In 2021, Disney announced the DisneylandForward initiative, a project whereby Disneyland will work with the City of Anaheim to re-zone specific parts of Disneyland property to be used for new lands, attractions, and experiences. Essentially, Disney would like to change areas that were initially zoned for specific uses (for instance, hotel spaces or parking lots). However, as things stand currently, Disney cannot use zones that are specified districts for anything other than what they are specifically zoned for.
More simply put, Disney wishes for flexibility to use its own land for what they want to do now; not just for a zones initially specified purpose.
To do this, Disneyland needs approval from the City of Anaheim. And so, as part of these plans, Disney will be asking the city for more flexibility when it comes to some older plans that were approved in the 1990s. That flexibility would then allow them to add a “mix of theme park, hotel, retail, dining and entertainment on the eastern and western edges of the Disneyland resort.”
©Disney
The current “DisneylandForward conceptual development plan stays within Disney’s existing 500-acre property in Anaheim with no physical expansion or additional acreage.” According to the Orange County Register, Anaheim spokesman Mike Lyster has explained that under those older city plans approved in the 1990s, you might have an area designated as “hotel” while another is designated as “entertainment.” Lyster explained that Disney is now looking for “mixed-use” flexibility so you could have hotel AND entertainment on the same parcel.
So, the plan is more focused on obtaining flexibility and rezoning areas to allow for certain expansions within the physical space they have.
©Disney
From a financial standpoint, Disneyland’s campaign includes a $1.9 billion investment plan to bring new experiences to the parks. DisneylandForward has evolved into a multi-year Disneyland and Anaheim Resort expansion and redesign. The proposed plan would put $1.9 billion over the next decade in an effort to expand the area’s lodging, retail, parking, dining options, and theme parks. The plan would ultimately be in effect for 40 years and transform the resort into something bigger and better — a unified entertainment center.
DisneylandForward: What the Future Could Hold
The following have been mentioned as possibilities and inspiration for new lands in Disneyland: Coco, Black Panther, Tangled, Frozen, Zootopia, Peter Pan, Tron, and Toy Story. And in fact, these concepts are already making their debuts in some of Disney’s international theme parks!
World of Frozen in Hong Kong Disneyland
Specifically, in January 2024, at an Anaheim City Council meeting, developers went into a bit more detail about what expansion could feature. During the city council meeting, Disney referenced a few of its other lands overseas, such as Zootopia Land at Shanghai Disney Resort and Rapunzel’s Forest at Tokyo DisneySea. World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland was also mentioned by name, further adding fuel to the speculation that Frozen could be coming to Anaheim in a big way.
So where could Disney put a Frozen Land at the Disneyland Resort? Disney is already about to use some space at Disney California Adventure (DCA) for a mysterious Avatar project (and even provided a glimpse at possible concept art during the April 2024 shareholders meeting).
©Disney
And apparently, the company has even bigger plans for the theme park. With the aid of expansion, DisneylandForward proposes adding Frozen entertainment (similar to what’s available in Hong Kong) to Disney California Adventure. The proposal also suggests even more lands, attractions, and entertainment options coming to DCA with mentions of Zootopia, Toy Story Land, and Tron.
The proposal also includes Peter Pan and Tangled expansions at Disneyland Park.
DisneylandForward “Possibilities Map”
On the official DisneylandForward website, there’s a “Possibilities Map” that reflects the updated ideas and approvals for upcoming changes to Disneyland. Here’s the map:
©Disney
Here’s the legend:
©Disney
As you can see, the orange borders on the Possibilities Map show where they would put the new additions, such as new hotels, park expansions, or transportation areas. Disney shared that this plan would allow Disney to bring more innovative and immersive attractions to the parks.
Disney stated, “This property could be the perfect location to cater to locals, conventioneers, hotel and Disneyland Resort guests with restaurants, hotels, live music, shopping, ticketed shows and theme park experiences modeled after the popular Disney Springs at Walt Disney World Resort.”
DisneylandForward: Meetings and Obstacles
Again, Disney has shared that the company is not looking to use public funding, but it does need approval from the City of Anaheim to be able to create these “mixed” zones. Disney shared on their website that while they have “the development rights and the desire to continue investing in Anaheim, the space to develop innovative attractions and immersive experiences is severely limited.” They need the ability to broaden “the uses allowed within each district” otherwise they will have to demolish and replace existing attractions to continue developing.
March 11, 2024
One of the biggest hurdles was the Anaheim Planning Commission meeting on March 11th, 2024. During that meeting the second topic on the agenda was the Disneyland Forward plan, and that one proposal lasted over 5 HOURS before a vote was cast. The long night ended after 11 PM PT with a 5-1 vote to recommend the project to move forward.
April 16, 2024
The Anaheim City Council met to review and vote on the DisneylandForward proposal on April 16th during its regular meeting at 5PM PT. The vote was APPROVED, making this the first step in moving forward with the actual theme park expansions!
May 7, 2024
On May 7th, 2024, a historic vote was made by the Anaheim City Council to officially APPROVE the DisneylandForward project! This means that Disneyland can begin to build new experiences for fans, create over 4,500 new jobs in the parks and over 9,000 new jobs in construction in the first 10 years, and bring new revenue to Anaheim.
DisneylandForward: What’s Next?
All in all, DisneylandForward will be a 40-year-long project. Not much has been officially confirmed for Disneyland Resort in terms of future changes; However, Disney has mentioned that they would use DisneylandForward to enhance parking for both guests and cast members while adding a new transportation center.
Also included in this expansion will be benefits for the residents of Anaheim, including $30 million for affordable housing, $8 million for parks, $85 million in traffic improvements and pedestrian safety, and continued investment in workforce development programs.
In more immediate terms, since DisneylandForward passed the May 7th Anaheim City Council vote, changes reflected in the plan could officially begin to be implemented after 30 days (which was June 6th, 2024). We can’t wait to see what this expansion will look like when it really gets going, so stay tuned to DFB for all the latest news!
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